The first studies on the formation and acceleration of the solar wind were performed by E. N. Parker in the late 1950s [1]}, [2]}. Subsequently to the seminal work, considerable effort has been devoted to understanding the physical processes involved in the heating of the solar wind, such as the energy partitioning between electrons and ions [3]}, collisionless contributions to the electron heat flux [4]}, the role of the super-radial expansion of solar wind magnetic flux tubes [5]}, [6]}, and energy transfer to the solar wind through shock (compressional) heating and Alfvén-wave turbulence [7]}, [8]}, [9]}.
Despite decades of research, fundamental questions regarding the processes generating the solar wind remain unresolved [10]}, [11]}, [12]}. The strong magnetic fields carried by the solar wind interact with photospheric convective motions to generate Alfvén waves [13]}. These Alfvén waves are ubiquitous in in situ solar wind observations in interplanetary space [14]}, [15]}. In the corona, their presence has been confirmed by non-thermal line width [16]}, [17]} and Faraday-rotation fluctuations [18]}, [19]}.
